


another choice

by holsmi



Series: an open road, driven together [1]
Category: The End Of The Fucking World (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, i know nothing about british culture, inappropriate and ineffective use of british slang, rated for language, season 2 non-compliant, their parents are in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 16:51:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21341530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holsmi/pseuds/holsmi
Summary: "“The harsher the better, yeah? We know how stubborn she can be,” Gwen said.Yeah, Alyssa can be stubborn, James thought. And brash. A little tactless, perhaps. But, Alyssa was forgiving. Kind. And so, so brave."James writes a different letter.
Relationships: Alyssa/James (The End of the Fucking World)
Series: an open road, driven together [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1539334
Comments: 7
Kudos: 146





	another choice

James stared at the blank paper Alyssa’s mum put on the table in front of him.

“The harsher the better, yeah? We know how stubborn she can be,” Gwen said.

Yeah, Alyssa can be stubborn, James thought. And brash. A little tactless, perhaps. But, Alyssa was forgiving. Kind. And so, so brave.

He picked up the pen and wrote her name at the top of the page. James caught Gwen’s eye again, and gave a restrained smile when she nodded encouragement at him.

Alyssa’s mum certainly wasn’t perfect, that much had been clearly determined. James saw in her face, though, that she was doing what she thought was best, and taking the decision out of Alyssa’s hands in the process.

Alyssa would hate that.

So, James would not write the letter her mum wanted him to. He wasn’t going to make that decision for her, not going to make any decisions for her. 

Instead, James filled the page with what he knew, what he had to tell her: that he’d probably never walk again, or at least never have full use of his lower body again (simultaneously unlucky and lucky in being shot at all, but shot in just the right place); that he was probably going to jail; but most of all that he loved her. That he’d love her for as long as she’d allow him to, and probably beyond that.

James smiled lasted inwardly as he signed the letter. He turned it towards her mum as she read it, her face falling. “This isn’t what you were supposed to do,” she said, holding the letter aloft in her fingers.

He reached over and plucked it from her grasp. “Yeah. I’ll take that stamp now, if you’re still offering,” he replied.

—-

James wasn’t sure what to expect back from Alyssa. She never seemed the type to appreciate proper sentimentality. 

The response he eventually got, an unsigned single piece of paper that read, “fuck off,” could have gone either way, really. 

His dad came to the hospital daily for visits. They sat and talked, or they sat and played cards, and James learned that he really liked spending time with his dad. 

A few days after James heard back from Alyssa—-and he does count “fuck off” as a legitimate response from her—-his dad stuck his head through the door first and then the rest of his body followed, having initially concealed a small gift bag. Phil placed the bag gently in James’s lap. 

James looked at his dad, and tore into the package when he said it was from Alyssa. Inside were a pair of socks, bundled together, and a note. The note read, “hospitals are cold, sorry about your legs.” The socks each had a ship’s wheel on the ankle. He held the socks in his hands and cried a little.

—-

Tony broke up with her mum. That was pretty great. She got community service for a couple hundred hours. That was alright, even if it made her a fucking pariah at school.

Alyssa’s mum going mental and taking the twins and her away to live with her Aunt Leigh, away from James, was fucking shit, though.

She wanted to stay, was going to stay. James had just started to walk again, and his first steps were into her arms. Alyssa even started to like his dad--Phil was cool, and they regularly got burgers from the cafeteria at the hospital. 

Anytime she brought it up, her mum went into fucking hysterics. She looked at her mum, screaming and crying, and felt sad.

—-

Phil drove her out to be there to see James’s sentence be suspended. She wasn’t there when Phil died, though, in the middle of bowling with his son.

Alyssa held James’s hand through the service, and held him, too, when it was time to say goodbye. They walked together quietley to the junk car Phil was so proud of and drove it back to James’s house. 

James stood outside in the drive, unable to move closer to the house. Alyssa knew, from knowing him, too many things were attached to this house for him to go back in. She touched his elbow gently as she moved passed him into the house. She grabbed a few essentials, and a few things she knew he wouldn’t want to leave behind, before locking up the house and guiding him back to the car.

He drove them back to her aunt’s house on the lake, and as they crossed the town’s border Alyssa said, “town’s shit, anyways.”

—-

At the lake house, Alyssa finished school locally, and got a job in the cafe for something to do and James drove into town to access the internet for his online university classes. They took long, meandering car trips whenever and wherever it suited them.

The bullets in the mail were still a fucking surprise, though.

**Author's Note:**

> all i do is write canon divergence i SWEAR


End file.
